09-18-07 PTRC Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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PARKS, TRAILS AND RECREATION COMMITTEE MEETING September 18, 2007 Page 2 4. PARKS, TRAILS AND RECREATION UPDATE Ms. Olson provided the following updates:  Fall Programs have started  Park and Recreation is working on some TEEN programs in cooperation with Shoreview, Blaine and Lino Lakes. The first event is this Saturday at Lino Lakes YMCA and will be a kickoff with a dodge ball tournament and ice cream social, the next event is in October at the Shoreview Community Center and will consist of a talent show, and the third event is in November.  An Eagle Scout Project was recently completed in August involving the assembly and placement of six new park benches (one at Cummings, two at Hazelnut, one at Floral, one at Arden Oaks, and one at Perry Park).  Staff is working on the annual Buckthorn weekend and will possibly do this in cooperation with the Eagle Scouts. Michelle will check with the Eagle Scouts to determine a date and park.  The tennis courts at Cummings are scheduled to be reconstructed this fall or early spring.  The city street contractor has been working on removing numerous dead, diseased trees. They found approximately 30 dead trees, a mixture of both Elm and Oak, in the Chatham trail area.  At the August Work Session the CIP was discussed. Staff had placed $7,500 in the budget for 2008 for a Disc Golf Course. The City Council made the decision to remove it from the budget.  Greg and Michelle attended a Parks and Rec Director meeting last week with all the area surrounding communities. Some interesting facts regarding disc golf came up. New Brighton has been getting petitions to have one of their Disc Golf Courses removed because of all the problems they are having. The issues were parking, littering, behavior, and location. It seemed to be attracting the wrong crowd to the neighborhood. She stated she has heard of positive results at the community parks – ones that are a little more open and not so close to the residents.  The Tony Schmidt Underpass trail is paved from Tony Schmidt all the way up to trail head where the lift station road is. Michelle indicated there are tentative plans to pave all the way from that trail head to County E2 in 2012. The Safe Routes to School Grant proposes to pave to Venus. Ramsey County is proposing to go from Venus all the way up to Mounds View. No timetable has been identified for this.  5. COMPREHENSIVE PLAN UPDATE & ACTIVE LIVING City Planner James Lehnhoff Mr. Lehnhoff indicated he has not had the chance to prepare anything further regarding th demographic information other than what he had at the August 8 meeting. He stated the City should be planning less for children and teens because that is the shrinking population within Arden Hills. The growing population is the 45 and up category. He indicated the information collected from the 50 people who took the survey at the August meeting indicates the median age being 61. He stated more programs are being incorporated for adults and senior citizens. Mr. Lehnhoff indicated the goal of the August 8 meeting was to essentially find out what people are concerned about and to get an idea of what general policies the City should have in place.